It’s mid-November and a project more than five years in the works at the Cupertino Village Shopping Center is still good to go.

A building permit was issued by the city of Cupertino in October that will keep a renovation project alive for the shopping center on the borderline of Cupertino and Sunnyvale. If a permit had not been issued, the project’s initial building permit would have expired Nov. 1, according to Cupertino city staff.

In April 2008, the council voted to allow the development of two one-story retail buildings totaling 24,455 square feet and a two-level parking structure in an existing commercial shopping center. The project has yet to break ground.

In July 2010, the council also gave a one-year extension and in November 2011, developers from Kimco Realty were given an extra two years to get an expansion project at the site ready for construction.

Both of the permit extensions prevented developers from having to go through an entire permit approval process again with the city of Cupertino. Representatives from Kimco Realty in 2011 told the city that it took about a year and a half and $350,000 worth of consultant time to prepare the original permit.

At the time of the extensions, Kimco representatives stated to the city in a letter that the extension was necessary in large part to waning tenant interest as a result of the unstable economy. The project goes back many years, as it was first presented for city review to the Cupertino Planning Commission on Nov. 13, 2007.

The project got a new jolt of life this summer when the city held an administrative hearing committee meeting on Aug. 8 to grant developers some minor changes to architecture and the site plan.

The project got its first round of approvals in April 2008 after a very close vote by the city council. It was approved 3-2, with current Vice Mayor Gilbert Wong and then-council member Kris Wang voting against the project, citing concerns with traffic congestion and limited parking.

The internationally flavored center is 12.5 acres and is at the southwest corner of Wolfe and Homestead roads. It is expected to see lots of foot traffic again in the coming years as it rests across from the former Hewlett-Packard campus and future home of the Apple Campus 2. The campus project was approved by the council last month and construction is expected to begin in the coming months.

A transit village with apartments, retailers, restaurants and a hotel is rising in Milpitas next to The Great Mall, close to light rail and the under-construction BART station. It’s one of several Silicon Valley projects sprouting up near transit.